DOCSLIB.ORG

THE IMAGES of WOMEN in the NOVELS of SINCLAIR LEWIS By

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
THE IMAGES of WOMEN in the NOVELS of SINCLAIR LEWIS By THE IMAGES OF WOMEN IN THE NOVELS OF SINCLAIR LEWIS By ALICE LOUISE SODOWSKY II Bachelor of Arts University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa 1952 Master of Arts Oklahoma State University Stillwater, Oklahoma 1970 Submitted to the Faculty cf the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY July, 1977 lhe<:,.,s \911D Slo \C\ .\_, CQ\:)· J._ THE IMAGES OF WOMEN IN THE NOVELS OF SINCLAIR LEWIS Thesis Approved: ' ~Ch"Dean of the ~----- Graduate College 997114 ii PREFACE A few years ago I read, by chance, Sinclair.Lewis's novel Ann Vickers, published in 1933, and I was surprised to find in its story the concepts and rhetoric of a feminist movement as contemporary as the cur­ rent ideas and expressions being espoused by the various women's libera­ tion and rights groups. The question of women 1 s roles occurred to me: are women's roles today different from those in the earlier part of the century? What are the changes, if any, in their roles in fiction? I was particularly interested in Lewis's fiction because he was from the Midwest, wrote about middle-class people, and remains a severe critic of our towns and cities a.s well as of our social institutions and values. A study directed towards examining the images of women in his novels, which cover a period of about thirty-seven years of our history, would, I thought, not only shed light on who the midwestern woman is, but also on who we'are all becoming. Several people were especially helpful in assisting me \.'Jith th·is study. The expertise in reading the chapters and valuable comments of my thesis adviser, Dr. Mary Rohrberger, enabled me to shape what at times seemed like a morass of material. Also, I am fortunate to have had as members of my thesis committee Dr. Clinton Keeler, Dr. Jennifer Kidney, and Prof. John Schweitzer, whose constructive corrij11ents and encouraging remarks made the work seem lighter. Finally, I thank my husband, Roland, who shared the good moments as well as the bad, each step of the way, and who understood it all. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ......•.. 1 II. PROTOTYPES IN THE EARLY NOVELS 7 III. CAROL KENNICOTT: VILLAGE WIFE . 36 IV. STEREOTYPES: CITY WIVES .... 68 V. FRAN DODSWORTH: DESTRUCTIVE WIFE 107 VI. ANN VICKERS AND BETHEL MERRIDAY: CAREER WOMEN . 138 VI I. JINNY TIMBERLANE AND PEONY PLAN I SH: PARASITIC CHARMERS 172 VIII. ROXANNA ELDRITCH: IDEAL WOMAN . 204 A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY . 220 iv CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Over a period of thirty-nine years Sinclair Lewis published twenty- three novels, two collections of short stories, three plays, essays, re­ views, and ephemera. He recorded middle-class America through periods ranging from the suffragist movement, prohibition, the depression, and two world wars. D. J. Dooley comments on Lewis 1 s scope: 11 Looking outward rather than inward, he attempted to analyze the forces which affected the behavior of his fellow citizens in a confusing transitional period; he tried to discover what were the sources of hope and frustration in the lives of typical young women, white collar workers, engineers, and garage mechanics of his time. 111 Dooley adds that 11 he was influenced by H. G. Wells, G. B. Shaw, and Thorstein Veblen; his themes were: (1) the barri­ ers of provincialism; (2) the waste of mis-education; (3) the possibili­ ties of socialism; (4) the promise of science and technology; (5) the precariousness of marriage in modern society, especi.ally as it is affected by job security. 112 Writers Carl Van Doren and E. M. Forster use such adjectives to describe Lewis's ability to record the ambience of the social scene as seismographic and photographic, respectively. The subject of this work is the image of women in Lewis's novels; the original intention was to examine the American woman portrayed by a writer whose method of writing lent itself to the socio-cultural approach of criticism or examination, but after the novels were analyzed, some of the 1 2 portrayals were found to function aesthetically within the structure of the novel, as well as thematically as specific social types, so that the ·approach varies from the social ···cultural to the formal . Further, this writer felt that one could find, in Lewis's fiction, many facets which Taine said 11 must be the principal method by which society and men are ob­ served, analyzed, and classified. Fiction should be the scientific labo­ ratory of society--the laboratory in which the complex components of our social system are mixed with each other, so that the race may watch the experiment, see the result, and be better able to make decisions affecting its life. 113 By examining the roles of women in American society in the literature of an author whose photographic method and seismographic responses trace and reflect, over a long period in our history, a variety of images of women, we can, by 11 observing, analyzing, and classifying, 11 better imagine ourselves. Lewis's approach to his characterizations varies from the realistic to the satiric, or from the fully representational to the caricaturistic. With a major figure like Carol Kennicott, Lewis supplies many details con­ cerning myriad aspects of her thoughts and actions, but with Peony Planish, Lewis limits the details to those aspects of her nature that revea1 her acquisitiveness and her degenerate, rococo taste. This latter method, the satiric, is indicative of his concern with social injustices and reform. Sheldon Grebstein comments on this method of characterization, which he says stems from the Theophrastian Character: The 11 Character 11 writer differs from the novelist in two special ways: (1) he deliberately ignores all qualities which would distinguish an individual; (2) he selects, invents, and borrows from a large number of individuals only those qualities or man­ nerisms or attitudes which express a particular type or trait 3 (the Flatterer, the Braggart, the Pretender to Learning); then he makes these into a composite character who becomes the per­ fect and typical representative of the desired trait .... The novel is an imitation of life, eliciting a direct response from the reader and permitting the reader's projection into it, while the creator of 1rcharacter 11 deliberately kept the reader and the work apart in order to evoke an intellectual response, an evaluation.4 Often Lewis's intention is to evoke an evaluation of the society or the forces that are shaping the characters, and one technique of his method is to show the relationship between the character and his posses­ sions. He said, 111 By your eyebrow pencils, your encyclopedias, and your alarm clocks shall ye be known. 1 " 5 For example, if Lewis wants to empha- size a grasping, acquisitive woman like Fran Dodsworth or Caprice Chart he describes their bedrooms, elaborate affairs full of silver toilette articles, lavender chaise lounges, damask drapes, and other expensive clutter. Edith Cortright, on the other hand, enjoys the spartan simplicity of a small Italian villa of bare walls and shining stone floors, an indi­ cation that Edith's spirit reflects Lewis's deepest values. And Leora Arrowsmith, who, Lewis says, best exemplifies qualities of loyalty and love, is free from all acquisitive instincts; even her clothes show her disregard for appearance and fashion: buttons missing, a spot here and there, an uneven hemline. Another factor Lewis uses to shape or mold a character is that character's point of view which Lewis delineates in a ratio of realism to sentimentalism. Lewis's use of the two terms is the following: the realist views the world primarily intellectually or objectively, seeing behind appearances or through pretense, sham, and shoddy values; the sentimentalist views the world primarily through his or her feelings and emotions, and consequently, although the view may be enchanting, it often proves to be distorted. For example, Carol Milford 4 in Main Street views life in the small town of Gopher Priarie (before she actually goes there) through some blurred photographs that her husband-to­ be, Will Kennicott, trying to entice her to marry him,shows her. What Carol sees in the photographs about Gopher Prairie springs from her roman­ tic feelings--a pastoral beauty surrounding simple, hard-working, kind people; she sees herself in the town working hand in hand with the people to enrich their lives; in short, Carol's view is sentimental, distorted by her feelings for Will as well as by a thousand myths about the sunny decencies and the pure heart of the American village. When Carol actually goes to live in Gopher Prairie she views the town objective]y and finds a vast distance between her closely observed impressions and her precon­ ceive.d, sentimental view; hence Carol's character is shaped by the conflicting elements within her of realism and sentimentalism. Thus Lewis shapes character in two important ways: through the external (objects, possessions, etc.), he communicates the internal, and through point of view he projects thoughts and feelings which are of primarily two types, the realistic and the sentimental. For the purpose of this work, the women in .Lewis's novels are classi­ fied in seven chapters: the first deals with prototypes found in his apprenticeship novels; the second with Carol Kennicott and other wives who live in a small mi.dwestern town in the years before the l920 1 s; the third with wives in cities and suburbs who, under the impact of mass production and mass communication become stereotypes; the fourth .with an acquisitive woman, a product of a society bent upon consumption, who seeks culture and people for her own adornment; the fifth with women who concentrate their lives in careers rather than domestic affairs; the sixth with wives whose relationships· with their husbands are, to a degree, destructive; and the 5 seventh with a woman who represents Lewis 1 s ideal companion or wife.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA Departamento De-Língua E Literatura Estrangeiras SINCLAIR! LEWIS: the NOBLE BARBARIAN A
    UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA Departamento de-Língua e Literatura Estrangeiras SINCLAIR! LEWIS: THE NOBLE BARBARIAN A Study of the Conflict of European and American Values in the Life and Fiction of Sinclair Lewis Tese submetida à Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina para a i obtençãoí do grau de Mestre em Letras Hein Leonard Bowles Novembro - 1978 Esta Tese foi julgada adequada para a obtenção do título de MESTRE EM LETRAS Especialidade Língua Inglesa e Literatura Correspondente e aprovada em sua forma final pelo Programa de PÓs-Graduação Pro John Bruce Derrick, PhD Orientador Z&L- Prof. Hilário^hacio Bohn, PhD Integrador do Curso Apresentada perante a Comissão Examinadora composta do; professores: Prof. John Bruce Derrick, PhD Para Dirce, Guilherme e Simone Agradecimentos À Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina À Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa À Fundação Faculdade Estadual de Filosofi de Guarapuava Ao Prof. Dr. John B. Derrick Ao Prof. Dr. Arnold Gordenstein ABSTRACT In Sauk Centre, a fairly new and raw midwestern American town in the first years of our century, a solitary youth reads Kipling, Scott, Tennyson and Dickens and becomes enchanted with Europe: its history, traditions and people. Seeing the monotonous and endless extensions of prairie land, the rustic farmer cottages and the haphazard design of his hometown, he imagines the superior graces of. a variegated European landscape; historical cities, old structures, castles and mansions that hint of aristocratic generations. And his people, engaged in the routine of their daily activities; their settled forms of behavior, conversation and clothing, become ; quite uninspiring for him as contrasted to his idealization of a romantic, exotic and stirring European world wherein cultured gentlemen and gracious ladies abound.
    [Show full text]
  • COPYRIGHTED by RUTH BELI, GOBER 1957
    COPYRIGHTED by RUTH BELI, GOBER 1957 THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE THE AMERICAN NOVELIST INTERPRETS THE STUDENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION BY RUTH BELL GOBER Norman, Oklahoma 1956 THE AMERICAN NOVELIST INTERPRETS THE STUDENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION APPROVED BY ÎSIS COMMITTEE TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION..................................... 1 II. F. SCOTT FITZGERALD.............................. 8 III. WILLA CATHER..................................... 46 IV. SINCLAIR LEWIS........................ 68 V, GEORGE SANTAYANA................................. Il8 VI. THOMAS WOLFE..................................... 142 VII. FINDINGS.......................................... 191 BIBLIOGRAPHY.............................................. 204 iv THE AMERICAN NOVELIST INTERPRETS THE STUDENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION "For a century and a half, the novel has been king of 1 Western literature." It has both mirrored and influenced popular thought as it has found readers throughout the West­ ern world. "The drama and the poetry, but chiefly the novel, of America have risen to a position of prestige and of influ- 2 ence abroad seldom equaled in history." Consequently, the content of the novel is of concern to educators. The present study is concerned with the interpretation of the student of higher education in the United States as found in the work of certain prominent American novelists of the twentieth century. The procedure used in selecting the five literary writers included an examination of annotated bibliographies of the American novels published during the twentieth century. The formidable number of writers who have used student 1------------------------------------------------------------- Henri Peyre, The Contemporary French Novel (New York: Oxford University Press, 1955]> 3. ^Ibid., 263.
    [Show full text]
  • Sinclair Lewis Society Newsletter VOLUME TWENTY, NUMBER ONE FALL 2011
    The SINCLAIR LEWIS SOCIETY NEWSLETTER VOLUME TWENTY, NUMBER ONE FALL 2011 LANCELOT TODD: A CASE FOR FICTIONAL INDEPENDENCE Samuel J. Rogal Illinois Valley Community College In a neat package of a single paragraph containing a summarization of Lewis’s Lancelot Todd, Mark Schorer de- termined that Lewis’s pre-1920s version of the present-day public relations agent run wild represented a relatively simple “ANOTHER PERFECT DAY”: WEATHER, instrument of his creator’s satire and farce. Schorer labeled MOOD, AND LANDSCAPE IN SINCLAIR Todd “a suave immoralist” and “swindler” who threads his LEWIS’S MINNESOTA DIARY way through a series of short stories with plots that hold no “real interest” and whose principal fictional function focuses Frederick Betz upon Lewis’s preparations for the larger worlds of George Southern Illinois University–Carbondale Babbitt and Elmer Gantry (Schorer 239). Although few critical commentators of twenty-first-century American fiction seem- Sinclair Lewis’s Minnesota Diary, 1942–46, superbly ingly have possessed the stamina or willingness to challenge introduced and edited by George Killough, “offers an inside Schorer’s generalized characterization of Todd, there lies suf- view of a very public person,” a “strangely quiet and factual” ficient evidence in the stories themselves to allow for at least diarist, who “keeps meticulous notes on weather, writes ap- a defense of Todd as a character who might somehow stand preciative descriptions of scenery, mentions hundreds of people independent of the likes of Babbitt and Gantry. he is meeting, and chronicles exploratory trips around Min- Lancelot Todd appears in seven Lewis stories published nesota” (15).
    [Show full text]
  • Hubert Irey Gibson Collection of Sinclair Lewis (1933-1993)
    The Hubert Irey Gibson Collection of Sinclair Lewis (1933-1993) University Archives and Special Collections St. Cloud State University St. Cloud, Minnesota Quantity: .84 linear feet Restrictions: No usage restrictions. St. Cloud State University Archives last modified June 1, 2009 Hubert Irey Gibson Collection of Sinclair Lewis 2 Biography Hubert Irey Gibson (1906 – 1996) Hubert Irey Gibson was born in Mason, Illinois, on December 21, 1906, the eldest of seven children. As a child, Hubert enjoyed writing, dreaming one day to become an author. Not sure that he could make a living solely as an author, he eventually decided to be a lawyer who was a writer. In 1928, Hubert moved to Chicago to attend law school. While in school, he found employment as a law clerk. Unfortunately, as the Great Depression descended upon the country, Hubert found himself with a growing family and no job. While Hubert’s wife, the former Frances Lauk, found steady work as a stenographer and typist, Hubert was unable to land employment. Frances suggested that Hubert gain skills that were in demand, such as typing and shorthand. He listened – Hubert attended night classes at a business college and soon acquired those skills. Those newly learned secretarial skills lead Hubert to his job with Sinclair and Lloyd Lewis in the fall of 1933. Chicago Daily News drama critic Lloyd Lewis, who was reported at the time to be writing a play with a famous author, gave Hubert a job as secretary. Hubert then lived temporarily with Sinclair Lewis at the Sherry Hotel in Chicago, preparing draft after draft of The Jayhawker (which was then called “The Skedaddler” or “The Glory Hole”).
    [Show full text]
  • GUARDIANS of AMERICAN LETTERS Roster As of February 2021
    GUARDIANS OF AMERICAN LETTERS roster as of February 2021 An Anonymous Gift in honor of those who have been inspired by the impassioned writings of James Baldwin James Baldwin: Collected Essays In honor of Daniel Aaron Ralph Waldo Emerson: Collected Poems & Translations Charles Ackerman Richard Wright: Early Novels Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Foundation Reporting World War II, Part II, in memory of Pfc. Paul Cauley Clark, U.S.M.C. The Civil War: The Third Year Told By Those Who Lived It, in memory of William B. Warren J. Aron Charitable Foundation Richard Henry Dana, Jr.: Two Years Before the Mast & Other Voyages, in memory of Jack Aron Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1959–1975, Parts I & II, in honor of the men and women who served in the War in Vietnam Vincent Astor Foundation, in honor of Brooke Astor Henry Adams: Novels: Mont Saint Michel, The Education Matthew Bacho H. P. Lovecraft: Tales Bay Foundation and Paul Foundation, in memory of Daniel A. Demarest Henry James: Novels 1881–1886 Frederick and Candace Beinecke Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry & Tales Edgar Allan Poe: Essays & Reviews Frank A. Bennack Jr. and Mary Lake Polan James Baldwin: Early Novels & Stories The Berkley Family Foundation American Speeches: Political Oratory from the Revolution to the Civil War American Speeches: Political Oratory from Abraham Lincoln to Bill Clinton The Civil War: The First Year Told By Those Who Lived It The Civil War: The Second Year Told By Those Who Lived It The Civil War: The Final Year Told By Those Who Lived It Ralph Waldo Emerson: Selected
    [Show full text]
  • SINCLAIR LEWIS' Fiction
    MR, FLANAGAN, who is professoT of American literature in. the University of Illinois, here brings to a total of fifteen his mafor contributions to this magazine. The article's appearance appropriately coincides with the seventy-fifth anniversary of Lewis' birth and the fortieth of the publication of Main Street. The MINNESOTA Backgrounds of SINCLAIR LEWIS' Fiction JOHN T. FLANAGAN SINCLAIR. LEWIS 'was once questioned his picture of Gopher Prairie and Minne­ about the autobiographical elements in sota and the entire Middle W^est became Main Street by a friend 'whose apartment both durable and to a large extent accurate. he 'was temporarily sharing. The novelist A satirist is of course prone to exaggeration. remarked to Charles Breasted that Dr. 'Will Over-emphasis and distortion are his stock Kennicott, the appealing country physician in trade. But despite this tilting of the in his first best seller, 'was a portrait of his balance, his understanding of places and father; and he admitted that Carol, the doc­ events and people must be reliable, other­ tor's 'wife, 'was in many respects indistin­ wise he risks losing touch with reality com­ guishable from himself. Both "Red" Lewis pletely, Lewis was born in Minnesota, he and Carol Kennicott were always groping spent the first seventeen years of his life in for something beyond attainment, always the state, and he returned on frequent visits, dissatisfied, always restless, and although which sometimes involved extensive stays both were frequently scornful of their im­ in Minneapolis, St, Paul, or Duluth, A num­ mediate surroundings they nevertheless ber of his early short stories and six of his lacked any clear vision of what could or twenty-two novels are localized wholly or should be done.
    [Show full text]
  • Vol. 50/ 3 (1986)
    BOOK REVIEWS Spheres of Liberty: Changing Perceptions of Liberty in done, because new conditions today upset the equilibriums of American Culture. By Michael Kammen. yesterday' (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1986. 191 p. Recognizing that it is in the courts where the debate over Cloth, $19.50.) the meaning of liberty has been most carefully played out, Kammen spends much of the book tracing the arguments put READERS of Michael Kammen's two earlier books. People forth by Supreme Court justices and legal scholars. Rut he is of Paradox: An Inquiry Concerning the Origins of American also careful to explore popular culture. He notes, for exam­ Civilization, which won a Pulitzer Prize for history, and A ple, that the meaning of the term "liberty" was widely dis­ Season of Youth: The American Revolution and the Histori­ cussed by the public at large during the debates over the Con­ cal Imagination, will find his latest exploration of American stitution, slavery, the Civil War, and the rights of property. culture, delivered as the Curti lectures for 1985-86 at the Uni­ Kammen also includes 22 illustrations of the popular sym­ versity of Wisconsin, to be cut from the same cloth. Kammen bols of liberty, depicted in pottery and coins, statues and road is fascinated with the paradoxical and contradictory features signs. Although the book concludes with a short biblio­ of American culture. In People of Paradox he examined the graphic essay on the illustrations, it is disappointing because nation's preoccupation with "biformities, . dualisms such he makes no attempt to tie the symbols to his central argu­ as legitimized lawlessness and poverty among abundance." ment.
    [Show full text]
  • Let the People of U.S. Vote on War and Peace Asians Lead Big Majority in U.S
    Workers of fhe World, Unite ! IMPERIALIST ATROCITIES IN KOREA - THE RECORD - See Page 2 - t h e MILITANT PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING PEOPLE Vol. XV - No. 5 NEW YORK, N. Y., MONDAY, JANUARY 29, 1951 PRICE: FIVE CENTS Destination Moon Let the People of U.S. Vote on War and Peace Asians lead Big Majority In U.S. Demand: Revolt in UN Bring Troops Back Home N ow ! Against U.S. By the Editor It is the President, the Senators and the Congressmen the GI’s are talking about. Why don’t-they listen to the voice of the GI? A full-fledged world-wide re­ The President of the United States, members of the Congress and the State Department are violating the will Rather than heed the people, America’s rulers are bickering volt against Washington’s de­ among themselves over the constitutional rights of the President as mands to close the door on peace of the American people by refusing to stop the Korean against Congress to send more American youth abroad. No doubt negotiations with China has war now. the skilled corporation lawyers and constitutional hair-splitters among them w ill probe all the legal angles of this issue. flared up in the United Nations. In a letter to the President and Members of the Congress But the American people — the mothers and fathers — are not Led by the bloc of Asian nations, printed in The M ilitant July 3'1, 1950, shortly after the beginning of U.S. intervention in the Korean civil war, James P.
    [Show full text]
  • Shail, Robert, British Film Directors
    BRITISH FILM DIRECTORS INTERNATIONAL FILM DIRECTOrs Series Editor: Robert Shail This series of reference guides covers the key film directors of a particular nation or continent. Each volume introduces the work of 100 contemporary and historically important figures, with entries arranged in alphabetical order as an A–Z. The Introduction to each volume sets out the existing context in relation to the study of the national cinema in question, and the place of the film director within the given production/cultural context. Each entry includes both a select bibliography and a complete filmography, and an index of film titles is provided for easy cross-referencing. BRITISH FILM DIRECTORS A CRITI Robert Shail British national cinema has produced an exceptional track record of innovative, ca creative and internationally recognised filmmakers, amongst them Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Powell and David Lean. This tradition continues today with L GUIDE the work of directors as diverse as Neil Jordan, Stephen Frears, Mike Leigh and Ken Loach. This concise, authoritative volume analyses critically the work of 100 British directors, from the innovators of the silent period to contemporary auteurs. An introduction places the individual entries in context and examines the role and status of the director within British film production. Balancing academic rigour ROBE with accessibility, British Film Directors provides an indispensable reference source for film students at all levels, as well as for the general cinema enthusiast. R Key Features T SHAIL • A complete list of each director’s British feature films • Suggested further reading on each filmmaker • A comprehensive career overview, including biographical information and an assessment of the director’s current critical standing Robert Shail is a Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Wales Lampeter.
    [Show full text]
  • Los Angeles City Planning Department
    JOHN O’HARA TOWNHOUSE 10733-10735 ½ Ohio Avenue CHC-2015-1979-HCM ENV-2015-2185-CE Agenda packet includes 1. Final Staff Recommendation Report 2. Categorical Exemption 3. Letter from John O’Hara’s daughter, Lylie O’Hara Doughty 4. Under Consideration Staff Recommendation Report 5. Nomination Please click on each document to be directly taken to the corresponding page of the PDF. Los Angeles Department of City Planning RECOMMENDATION REPORT CULTURAL HERITAGE COMMISSION CASE NO.: CHC-2015-1979-HCM ENV-2015-2185-CE HEARING DATE: August 6, 2015 Location: 10733-10735 ½ Ohio Avenue TIME: 9:00 AM Council District: 5 PLACE: City Hall, Room 1010 Community Plan Area: Westwood 200 N. Spring Street Area Planning Commission: West Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA Neighborhood Council: Westwood 90012 Legal Description: TR 7803, Block 28, Lot 14 PROJECT: Historic-Cultural Monument Application for the JOHN O’HARA TOWNHOUSE REQUEST: Declare the property a Historic-Cultural Monument OWNER(S): Thomas Berry 986 La Mesa Terrace Unit A Sunnyvale, CA 94086 Caribeth LLC c/o John Ketcham 626 Adelaide Drive Santa Monica,CA 90402 APPLICANT: Marlene McCampbell 10634 Holman Ave. Apt 1 Los Angeles, CA 90024 RECOMMENDATION That the Cultural Heritage Commission: 1. Declare the subject property a Historic-Cultural Monument per Los Angeles Administrative Code Chapter 9, Division 22, Article 1, Section 22.171.7. 2. Adopt the staff report and findings. MICHAEL J. LOGRANDE Director of PlanningN1907 [SIGNED ORIGINAL IN FILE] [SIGNED ORIGINAL IN FILE] Ken Bernstein, AICP, Manager
    [Show full text]
  • Sinclair Lewis: Social Satirist
    Fort Hays State University FHSU Scholars Repository Master's Theses Graduate School Spring 1951 Sinclair Lewis: Social Satirist Milldred L. Bryant-Parsons Fort Hays Kansas State College Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.fhsu.edu/theses Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Bryant-Parsons, Milldred L., "Sinclair Lewis: Social Satirist" (1951). Master's Theses. 468. https://scholars.fhsu.edu/theses/468 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at FHSU Scholars Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of FHSU Scholars Repository. SINCLAIR LEWIS: SOCIAL SAT I RI ST being A thesis presented to the Graduate Faculty of the Fort Hays Kansas State College in partial fulfillment of the r equirements f or the De gree of Master of Scien ce by ' \, Mrs . Mildred L. Bryant_!arsons , A. B. Kansas We sleyan University Date ~ /ff/f'J{ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writer wishes to express her sincere appreciation to Dr. Ralph V. Coder, under whose direction this thesis was prepared, for his eneour- agement and constructive criticism. Dr. F. B. Streeter has been very helpful in showing the mechanics of thesis writing. Miss Roberta Stout has ' offered many excellent suggestions. The writer also wishes to thank the library staff: Mrs. Pauline Lindner, Miss Helen Mcilrath, and Mrs. Nina McIntosh who have helped in gathering materials. c-1> TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION I • SATIRE ON PSEUDO-CULTURE Mains treet. • • 6 Dodsworth •• . 12 The Prodigal Parents .• 13 II. SATIRE ON RACE PREJUDICE Mantrap • • • • • 15 Kingsblood Royal .
    [Show full text]
  • Portrayal of Society in the Novels of Sinclair Lewi
    International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research ISSN: 2455-2070 Impact Factor: RJIF 5.22 www.socialsciencejournal.in Volume 4; Issue 6; November 2018; Page No. 58-61 Portrayal of society in the novels of Sinclair Lewi Neha Garg Research Scholar, Sighania University, Rajasthan, India Abstract Lewis is a critic of his times. He depicts life and society as he sees them. Lewis does not believe in false idealisation of things. Instead, he expresses the sickness and misery of the American Society Lewis has been often called the “Dickens of America”. The peculiar mixture of radicalism and orthodoxy in dickens’ political and social views was much like Lewis’s. Not unlike Dickens, Lewis was always highly critical of American prolities. Keywords: Sinclair Lewi, radicalism and orthodoxy, political and social Introduction condition in American life. Influenced by William James, he Most modern writers portray the tragic experience of the is essentially a pragmatist. According to James, a pragmatist American machine-age. They are disillusioned and sad. The ‘turns away from abstraction and insufficiency, from verbal modern generation, they maintain, is a lost generation devoid solution, from fixed principles, closed systems, and pretended of human values. It is uprooted and betrayed. In such horrible absolutes and origins. He turns towards facts, towards action conditions, the camera eye is a great necessity to make the and towards power [5]. The secret of Lewis’ art is his living the people realize their bad ways of life and save themselves from life of his characters. His emphasis is on creating living dehumanization.
    [Show full text]